In Re Cress

The petitioner, Joseph W. Cress, is confined in the state pentitentiary at Walla Walla by virtue of a judgment and sentence which reads, in part, as follows:

“It Is Considered, Ordered and Adjudged, By the Court, that said defendant be and he hereby is adjudged to be guilty of the crime of Habitual criminal, as charged in said information, and it is the sentence of this Court that said defendant be and he hereby is sentenced to be punished by confinement at hard labor in the penitentiary of the State of Washington at Walla Walla, Washington, for his natural life.”

Petitioner contends (1) that,…